


Trapped in a Box

by ravenroses



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-11 02:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7871230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenroses/pseuds/ravenroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kid Flash and Artemis, already separated from the team, get locked inside a walk in freezer with no sign of a way out. Based on a prompt from a long time ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trapped in a Box

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Artemis said, arms crossed over her chest. She wasn’t looking at him either. Her bored and annoyed eyes were looking at everything else in the room.

Kid Flash still had his hands pressed to the door. He pushed on the metal and it wouldn’t budge. He let his head hang between his outstretched arms. It was no use. The door was locked tight. No matter how hard he pushed, it was not going to move. Worst of all, he was stuck in the freezer with her.

His hands slid off the door and he turned to lean against it. Kid Flash crossed his arms over his chest, “Got any arrows in there to blow this door down?”

Artemis reached back into her quiver. There weren’t many arrows left. She pulled out four and examined each before putting them back one at a time, “This one’s knock out gas. These two are flash bombs. And this,” she held it up in front of her, “is a smoke bomb.”

“You could have just said no.”

She shrugged and put the final arrow back in with the rest of them. “Guess I used all the explosives when we were fighting out there,” she said.

“Think the others will find us?” he asked.

“Who knows? Why’d you send us in here? Didn’t you realize it was a freezer?”

Wally stretched out his arms, “Like I knew the door would lock from the outside. We needed some place to go or else we would have been toasted out there. Unless you wanted to die.”

“Yeah, well now we get to freeze to death _in here_.”

They looked away from one another. Both had their arms crossed tight over their abdomens. It was a freezer after all. Soon, Artemis crouched down. Her stomach was exposed in her costume and she tried to keep it as close to her legs as possible to stay warm. She contemplated dragging a box away from one of the walls to sit on but figured that would be rather cold too.

Wally fought the urge to lean against the cold metal door again. He was busy calculating numbers in his head, or at least trying to. He wanted to gauge how long they could survive in there. Without water it would be three days max but they were in cold temperatures. _How would that affect us?_ he asked himself. He began to rub his hands up and down his arms to get the initial chill out and to help him focus.

Then he began to pace.

Artemis stood up and pulled on a box. At first it wouldn’t move. “Oh great,” she mumbled. She tried another and it moved. She put it on the ground, a little further from Wally now that he was pacing, then sat. She tested the box to see how it held her weight. Then she pulled her feet up on top of it and hugged her knees to her chest. She had nothing else to look at but her teammate pacing.

“Hypothermia sets in,” he began mumbling to himself. It sounded like he was discussing numbers and options with himself.

“Would you knock it off!?” Artemis yelled after a few minutes of watching him. He froze in his tracks and looked at her. “You’re theories aren’t going to get us out of here faster.”

“Excuse me for trying to figure out how much time we would have if no one else shows up.”

“How morbid,” she said quietly and placed her chin in the valley between her knees.

Wally walked up to the door again and examined it. Then he moved to the wall next to it. He moved a few of the boxes away from it so that he could take a closer look.

He placed a hand against it, “What do you think this is made of?” After a minute, he glanced back at her and raised his eyebrows in question.

“Oh, you were asking me?” she said. Then she shook her head, “No idea. Not the same metal as the door maybe. Why does it matter?”

He looked back at the wall, “I should try something.” He glanced at her, “This might get bloody.”

“What are you-“ she was cut off. Her eyes widened out of disbelief.

Before her eyes, it seemed Wally was fading out of sight. He had put his other hand against the wall and moved closer to it. It almost looked like he was getting smaller, skinnier, something she couldn’t find the right word for. He was fading before her eyes. She picked her head up and leaned forward more to try to grasp what was actually happening.

Suddenly, he was back to normal. It happened in the blink of an eye. Artemis stood up and took a step closer to him. He was breathing heavily, bent over, with his hands to his face. She reached out for him but pulled her hand away.

“Damn,” he said in a muffled voice.

Wally turned to look at her. He had called it; blood was pooling between his fingers. “Sorry,” he said.

“What was that?” she asked.

He took one hand away from his face. She could see he was covered in blood. He pinched his nose with his free hand and put the back of his other hand against the end of it. He tilted his head slightly. After a few moments, he sniffled and removed his hands.

“That should stop it,” he used his sleeve to try to clean off the rest of his face. A little of the blood remained but he was clean for now.

“What was that?” Artemis asked again.

“I uh, I was trying to vibrate through the wall to the other side. If it were a regular wall I might have been able to do it.”

“You can do that?” she sounded almost impressed.

“Yeah, well, it’s not easy. You just witnessed what usually happens.”

“All you get is a bloody nose?”

“Something has to be the downside of it, right?”

“Are you going to try again?”

“Not now.”

“Will you?”

“We’ll see how long we’re in here for.”

She tossed her arms into the air, “Great. So we’re back to being trapped.”

Wally didn’t say anything. He had tried what he could. It failed. There was no reason she had to rub it in.

They lapsed back into silence. Artemis sat down on her box again and resumed the position she had left before he started trying to go through the wall. Wally opened up the compartment built into his sleeve. Inside were three granola bars. He checked the other sleeve. A bag of cookies was in it. He closed that one and took a granola bar from the first sleeve.

He dragged a box over to the middle of the room to sit. He sat near his teammate but didn’t look at her; instead he focused on the wall opposite him. He unwrapped the bar and broke it in half. He shoved the half in his hand into his mouth. He looked down at the other half still in the wrapper. He thought about eating that too. Then he decided to be nice.

He didn’t look up at her. He just held out his hand in front of her face and tilted it toward her.

"Are you asking if I want that?”

“Yeah.”

Artemis stared at it a moment, reluctant. Then she took it. She pulled it up and took a bite. She chewed slowly, as if thinking about what she was doing.

When she swallowed, she took out the other piece and stopped before putting it in her mouth, “Do you think we’ll get out of here?” then she ate it.

Wally shrugged. He was tired from trying to get through the wall. He was leaning over, arms on his legs and head hanging down. He thought of eating another granola bar but stopped himself. They might have to make what was left last longer.

Artemis hugged her knees tighter. She felt a chill run up her spine. Her body shook with it. Wally looked over at her. They shared a defeated look then they turned away. He sunk lower into himself and she formed a tighter ball around herself.

After another hour of sitting in freezing silence, Artemis looked over at him. Her teammate had his eyes closed. She uncurled herself and reached out to him. She poked his arm. He was cool and soft.

“Hey,” she said.

His eyes fluttered opened. When his eyes focused on her, she gave him a small smile. “Hi,” he said.

She was relieved that he hadn’t died or something on her. It seemed like an irrational thought the more she thought about it but the cold was getting to her. She was shivering more than before. Her limbs ached from being locked in a bent position for too long.

Wally stood up and stretched out. She could hear his joints cracking as he moved. He relaxed again and yawned. Then he looked at her. He could see she was shaking. There was no laughter or anything in his green eyes. Artemis blinked under his gaze.

He turned around and moved his box closer to hers. “How are you holding up?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said through chattering teeth.

He took his seat again and reached out for her. Her whole body stiffened and her defenses rose quickly. She put an arm out to stop him.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“You’re shivering. We don’t have anything in here to start a fire with. We have to share warmth for now. Come here. I’m not going to hurt you.”

She stared at him. His eyes still told her nothing about his thoughts but she couldn’t help but believe him. She shifted her weight and leaned against him. He put his arm over her shoulder and let his hand rest on her elbow. He left his other hand on his own leg and put his cheek against her head.

Artemis was feeling a little warmer but it didn’t help. She was still shivering. That wasn’t going to stop until she was out of there.

Wally laughed lightly, “That’s what you get for wearing a skimpy outfit.”

She jabbed him in the side with her finger, “Can it, spandex boy.”

He laughed again. She couldn’t help but smile just a little, making sure he couldn’t see her face. It started off as the worst situation she could be in, but it wasn’t so bad now that they both were beyond cold and had to think of survival rather than their stupid differences. Whenever they got out of there, though, she knew they’d be back at each other’s throats in no time, pinning the blame of getting stuck in there on one another.


End file.
